To begin, here is a reading of
the scripture in text for the message. It's taken from Numbers
chapter 5, verses 12 through 31, and reads as follows. speak
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's
wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, and a man lie with
her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and
be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against
her, neither she be taken with the manner, and the spirit of
jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she
be defiled. Or if the spirit of jealousy
come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled,
then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he
shall bring her offering for her. the tenth part of an ephah
of barley meal, he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense
thereon, for it's an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial,
bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her
near, and set her before the Lord. And the priest shall take
holy water, and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle
the priest shall take, and put it into the water. And the priest
shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman's
head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which
is the jealousy offering, And the priest shall have in his
hand the bitter water that causes the curse. And the priest shall
charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have
lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness
with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter
water that causes the curse. But if thou hast gone aside to
another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some
men have lain with thee beside thine husband, then the priest
shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest
shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an
oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot
and thy belly to swell. And this water that causes the
curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell and
thy thigh to rot, and the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. And the priest shall write these
curses in a book, And he shall blot them out with the bitter
water. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water
that causes the curse, and the water that causes the curse shall
enter into her and become bitter. Then the priest shall take the
jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave
the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar.
And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, even the memorial
thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterwards shall cause
the woman to drink the water." and when he hath made her to
drink the water, then it shall come to pass that if she be defiled,
and have done trespass against her husband, then the water that
causes the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter,
and her belly shall swell, and her thighs shall rot, and the
woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman
be not defiled, but be clean, then she shall be free and shall
conceive seed. This is the law of jealousies,
when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband and is
defiled, or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and
he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before
the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. Then shall the man be guiltless
from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity." And
now for the message. All right, if you will turn with
me back again to Numbers chapter 5. Numbers chapter 5 is a precept
given of God to Israel to appease the spirit of jealousy in the
heart of a husband whose wife was suspected of adultery. Now she was not proven guilty.
Not proven guilty. To be proven guilty was an automatic
death sentence. You will recall in John chapter
8, the Pharisees took a woman in the very act of adultery.
And they brought her before the Lord and they said, She is bestowed,
what do you say, automatic death penalty. But not so in this case. She was only a suspect. She was
not taken in the act. She was not accused by an eyewitness. There had not been a public confession
by either party. But because of the way she conducted
herself, accusations, rumors, in the end, began to spread until
at last the gossip fell upon the ears of her loving husband
and a spirit of jealousy began to burn in his heart. And maybe
she was seen in a compromising situation, maybe she was seen
alone for a period of time with a man, or maybe she was just
a clerk. I don't know, it doesn't say.
But whatever the reason, Before this jealous husband could
take matters into his own hands and dishonor himself and his
wife or his God, something had to be done. And so the Lord gave
this precept to determine the truth and condemn the guilty
or justify the innocent. and then so extinguish the spirit
of jealousy in the loving husband. Now I keep saying loving husband
because a loving husband is the only kind of husband that would
be jealous. If there was no love for his
beloved wife, there'd be no jealousy. There'll be no jealousy. So the
Lord gave this precept to bring out the truth, condemn the guilty,
justify the innocent, and so extinguish the spirit of jealousy
in the loving husband. Now this precept, if you read
it carefully, has to do with two women. Two women. Completely different. Completely
different. The first was an unfaithful bride,
one who pretended to love her husband. She pretended to be
submissive to him, publicly singing his praise, bragging on his name. Oh, how I love Jesus, she said. She was a pretender. But secretly, she lived a life
contrary to her pretense. Secretly, she was involved with
another, not openly, no witnesses, careful never to be caught in
the act. This is the first one. The second
was a faithful bride, a loving wife, falsely charged, whose
reputation must be restored to satisfy her jealous husband. This precept is designed to extinguish
the spirit of jealousy by an inward work of God. I hope you paid careful attention
as he read through the law. It was to extinguish the spirit
of jealousy by an inward work of God which would condemn or
justify be accused. Specifically, it was to reveal
the heart of his beloved wife. You see, adultery is not just
a breach of the law, it's a sin against love. I've talked with
people for a long time. I've been around a while. And
I listen to them talk about conviction of sin. Well, I was convicted
of smoking. That's not conviction of sin.
Conviction of sin is where you see yourself. Where you see yourself
and everything that you do against the love of Christ. Everything you do contrary, against
the love of Christ. I've never seen A better picture
of that than in this unfaithful bride. It's a compromise of a
holy union sanctified in the eyes of God. What could be more
obnoxious to a man than a pretended affection for him while her heart
was for another? What could possibly inflame a
man more than to picture his beloved bride in the arms of
another? You see, jealousy is a fire that
either must be put out or it will totally, totally consume
the object of its wrath. Are you with me so far? Now those
of you who have studied the Scriptures and have listened to your pastor's
teaching, know that all these precepts picture in some way
the work of Christ and that which is done in the hearts of His
elect. If I understand the book of Numbers,
it is about Israel's journey through the wilderness which
prepares them for their entering into Canaan. The priesthood of
the law was not given to us to be copied and then to restructure
the New Testament church as it is in Catholicism and most other
so-called Christian religions. But these things were patterns.
They were patterns of things in the heavens. They were shadows,
Paul said, of good things to come and figures for the time,
then present. He tells us in the book of Acts,
Brother Ron read a while ago back in the study, to him give
all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth
in Him shall receive remission of sin. So then my purpose this
morning is not to introduce a new precept to the church to satisfy
jealous husbands, but to show you how Christ, our jealous husband,
reconciles His beloved bride and how and what must take place
to bring this to pass. That's what this precept to me
is all about. So let me just briefly give you
five or six things in this precept that every believing soul will
come to know in the sweet experience of grace. Now the first thing
is that the woman in question must be brought to the minister
of God. Her jealous husband is going
to bring her to the priest, and the priest in this In this precept is not the high
priest. This is a common priest. He's
just a common priest. And this priest has a sanctification
which set him apart to minister in the things concerning the
tabernacle, to do things which God had set him apart to do,
holy things, spiritual things, things of God. And it's in this
sense, I believe, that Peter tells us that ye are lively stones
build up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And if
you'll give me just a little bit of leeway, I might even tell
you that this priest here represents a preacher. He represents a preacher
ministering to the accused wife of a faithful husband. These
people were God's people. And if the husband was jealous,
so was the priest. Does that seem odd to you? Paul
said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11-2, I am jealous over you. With a godly jealousy, for I
have espoused you to one husband. that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. It's not unthinkable that this
priest who now must examine her was the same priest before whom
she took her vows, the same one. There is a godly jealousy in
the hearts of those who minister the gospel to men That those
begotten under his ministry, that's what Paul said, I have
begotten you through the gospel. Folks don't believe that, do
they? That those begotten under their ministry be presented to
their faithful husband as pure and chaste virgins. But, Paul
said in that same chapter, he said, I have a fear. I have a
fear. As the serpents Beguiled the
first bride even through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity," that word is union or oneness,
of Christ. Christ and his bride are one. And as a bride and her husband
have entered into a holy union, so Christ and his church But
his bride is questionable at best, isn't she? She's questionable at best. Because of the presence of a
nature of sin, she is always under suspicion. And her husband
will not tolerate adultery. Now, adultery in the physical
typifies spiritual adultery of men and women being led astray
under the influence and damning effects of false religion. But
it also represents a heart for this world. All of those things
in the Scripture, in a spiritual sense, are referred to as adultery. And Christ will not share the
love of His bride with another. Her reputation is such that she
must be brought to the priest to settle this issue. Now, I
know folks think they can settle the issue themselves. I hear
it all the time. I know some think that a reformation
of life will straighten things out. It won't. I know some even
think that a confession or a profession will do it. But that's what we
think. And our thoughts are not God's
thoughts. It pleased God, he said, through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And she'll be bought
by her jealous husband to be dealt with by the Lord through
the preaching of the gospel. That's where men and women's
hearts are exposed. You know why they won't come?
It tells you over in the book of John, John chapter 3, I believe
it is. He said, they won't come to the
light because their deeds are evil. When you come to the light,
it exposes the faith. There's a way, it tells us in
Proverbs, that seemeth right unto a man. But the end thereof
is death. All right? We've got a loving
husband bringing a suspected bride to the priest. Here's the second thing I see
here. That this jealous husband who brings her is required of
God. If you go back to the very beginning,
of Numbers chapter 5, you'll see that the Lord gave these
commandments to Israel. The jealous husband who brings
her is required of God to provide for her the offering required. She is to take a tenth part of
an ephah, which is, if my understanding is correct, an omer. of barley. She don't have anything to bring
but guilt and shame. She has nothing to offer but
a questionable reputation. So he is to provide for her an
omer of barley. What's that got to do with it?
Well, I don't want to get into this whole thing of wave offerings
and all of that, and that's what this was about. But if I understand
it right, this was a token of the love of Christ. This is the firstfruits of her
husband's love. And he puts it in her hand. Or he takes it for her. Was it
not an Omer of barley, and I want you Just think with me for a
minute. I know I'm about out of time.
When Ruth came back with Naomi, and Naomi told her to go out
and glean in the fields, and Boaz spotted her, and he called
his men over. And he said, don't bother them.
In fact, dropped some handfuls purpose. A token of His love. And she came back to Naomi, not
knowing what she had. She just picked up what was there.
Didn't think anything of it. Didn't know anything about it.
She was a Gentile. And she came back with this omer
of barley in her hand, and Naomi seen that and said, She said in Boaz's field, oh,
I know who he is. Homer of Barley. I'll tell you
somewhere else you read that, about that Homer of Barley. In
the book of Hosea. Picture this. The harlot bride. who despised her husband's love,
chased after her lovers, is now ruined. Not even her lovers want
her anymore. And she's down there on the auction
block, and Hosea, the man of God, goes down and buys his bride
for the owner of barley. He's a jealous husband, but he
loves his wife. And he'll have her if he can. Does that really run away, if
he can? Does that go contrary to sovereign
grace? I don't think so. He'll reconcile
her if he can do it without compromise, without compromising his own
person. and the righteous integrity of
God. And this offering was not to be anointed. It wasn't to
be doctored up. It wasn't to have any frankincense
on it, no oil on it. This wasn't like that offering
that went into the Holy of Holies. This was a jealousy offering.
This was about a memorial of sin and a memorial of iniquity. This was about exposing this
bride's heart. This was a ceremony in which
his bride would be condemned or justified. And if I understand
the wave offering, it was concerning the firstfruits, and even so,
in her hands, a token of his firstfruits. Alright, here's
the third thing. She's brought before the Lord.
Why? Couldn't they just get a counsel,
get a jury or something and stand up? No. Wasn't any witnesses. Wasn't
any evidence. Just suspicion. Why bring her
before God? Because He's the only one that
can manifest the hearts of men. That's why. He's the only one. I know sometimes we think we
can go over to our cousin's house and sit down with him and take
the Bible and convince him. Sometimes I just want to get
people by the head and screw it off and dump it in. Why can't
you see this? Because only God can make it
known. That's why. That's why. Man looks on the outward countenance.
That's as far as I can see. God looks on the heart. And I
guarantee you that He's able to manifest the truth where and
by whom He purposes to do it. God always attends the means
He has ordained. I had a fellow tell me not too
long ago. I brought a message on the necessity of gospel preaching. He came in there one night and
he said, I'm going to show you something. He was going through
his Bible. Turned over there in the book
of Acts and he said, the Lord smoked Paul down off of a big
white stallion with a light and threw him in the mud and revealed
himself to him. Wasn't no preaching involved.
And I said, well, why don't you go get on a big white horse and
ride it around Arkansas until God smites you down with a light?
if that's what you believe. But I say, if I was you, I'd
go over here where it talks about preaching and preachers, and
that's where I'd get my doctrine from. God always attends the means
He has ordained, and they're always effectual. Well, I preached
and nothing happened. Well, you didn't preach. That's
what that was all about. There was no preaching. Preaching
was always affection. Always. You could be a savior
of life unto life or death unto death. When the jealous husband
brought the accused bride to the priest, it was affection. Don't ever forget that. It's
affection. Alright, here's the fourth thing
I see in this, Todd. elixir, a holy elixir, a strange
and wonderful concoction. In an earthen vessel, the Lord
God of Israel commanded a potion to be mixed. He gave a prescription
to the priest. He said, get you an earthen vessel.
Go to the laborer. I suppose, I expect that's what
he meant. Take a dipper in the labor, in
the holy water. Put some in that glass, in that
clay pot. And then I want you to go into
the holy place and sweep around and get some dust and put it
in the water. What a strange concoction. Water
from the labor. to me is a picture of the sanctifying
presence of the Holy Spirit and the washing of water by His work. And then dust is a symbol of
death, if I understand it right, or a symbol of creation. Whichever way you want to see
it. Maybe both. Maybe both. But the fact that
it came from the holy place might direct our minds to think about
this. This was holy dust, or a holy
death. Put these together, and I believe
you have the gospel of Christ as it's preached and the power
of God's Holy Spirit, or as Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 4,
God's treasure in an earthen vessel. So then, what would justify
or condemn was the gospel taken within the accused. And this
potion was not practical. That's why men don't understand
it. That's why natural men don't understand it. He said it don't
make sense. That's because it's not practical.
It's spiritual. There was nothing in this cup
to cause this woman's thigh to rot or her belly to swell. It was just dirty water. This
potion was not practical, it was sterile. And there was nothing
in this elixir to produce or explain or reason of what would
take place in the hearts of those who drank it. More than likely,
when the priest brought it to the unfaithful bride, it appeared
foolishness to her. Had nothing in there to expose
me. I drank that, no problem. The other might have seemed foolish
to the perishing bride who was guilty of just another flaw to
get her to confess what she was sure that no one else knew. Just water and dust in a clay
pot, nothing to fear, nothing to bring about a curse. But this
was a spiritual elixir, a sanctified potion which God himself would
make effectual. I want you to hear me. The business
of the preacher was to mix the potion. His was just to take
from God's instruction, God's prescription, and mix the potion. And then put it into the hands
of the accused and charge her to drink it. Everything else
was up to God. That's as far as he could go. All right, fifthly, the priest
had a holy charge to make clear both the curse and the consequences
of racism. He was not only to declare the
curse of God against such a crime, but to make her acknowledge it
as it was written in this holy book. And the only way on the
top side of God's green earth for this holy curse to be blotted
out was for her to drink this bitter medicine and wait on God
to reveal the end. All you could do. Having declared
both the curse and the way of justification, she was to say
out in a loud voice, Amen. Now, hang what that says. That
says, Amen, Amen. Amen if he justifies me and returns
me to the arms of my loving husband, and amen if he don't. Are you with me? This beloved spouse of God must
be given this instruction by God's preacher and then put themselves
at the mercy of God. Let me take one more step. This
precept is concerning two women, one guilty and the other innocent,
totally innocent. Can you, in your own experience
of grace, fathom that both of these women are the same? That's what unlocks this passage
to me. It's the same woman. This spiritual elixir both condemns
and justifies. She's put before Him and she
finds herself taking sides with God in her own condemnation. Isn't that something? David said,
Against thee and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil
in thy sight. Why in the world would he say
such a thing? That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and cleared when thou judgest. Job said, If I justify myself,
my own mouth condense me. That's the position this bride
was in. She couldn't justify herself.
Her own mouth would condemn her. See, the only thing that this
woman was required to say was, Amen. And I remember listening
to the gospel, and as the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin, saying,
Amen. My friend, grace shuts a man
up to God. It's all in his hands. It's amen
if he condemns and amen if he justifies. She must drink it
and wait on God to determine the end. What happens to a man
or a woman who hears the gospel? They'll be justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. As God
has set him forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood. Justly,
justly justifying her to declare His righteousness in her justification. That's what's going on here in
this precept. Or He'll give her over to a strong delusion because
she received not the love of the truth that she might be saved
and begin to rot. from the inside out. But believers are both condemned
and justified. That's what I see in there. This
is talking about Israel in their walk to Canaan. This is talking
about worship. This is inside the courtyard
of the tabernacle. Believers are both condemned
and justified. He who convinces of righteousness
and judgment satisfied first convinces of sin. And I'm going
to tell you something from my own experience. If God ever convinces
you of sin, He'll be the only one who can ever convince you
of righteousness and judgment satisfied. All the preachers
on earth are not going to give you any peace until you hear
from God. Hannah said, the Lord killeth
and maketh alive. I think she understood this,
don't you? He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. He'll keep the feet of his saints,
and the wicked shall sit silent in darkness. All that in your
endos and murmurings and false charges and all of that, when
God justifies His bribe, they are set in darkness without a
word. Now in closing, let me say this. This ceremony will be experienced
again and again as the accuser of the brethren attempts to defame
the bride of Christ. She finds herself constantly
being brought to drink His gospel and be condemned and justified
each time she is brought. And each time she's brought again
and again to find herself returned to the arms of her loving husband. Every time I hear the gospel,
every time, I find myself guilty before God. Guilty. What I would do, I do not. What
I would not do is exactly what I do. I find myself with Paul
despising myself, saying, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this dead? I thank God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So then, with the mind. With
the mind. What's that talking about? That's
talking about the mind of Christ. With the mind of Christ. I myself
serve the law of God perfectly, uninterrupted, and without compromise,
but with the flesh and the law of sin. And that man who can
walk after the Spirit with the mind of Christ is free from condemnation,
for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
him free. This bride was now returned to
her husband free. Free! Not just as though she'd never
sinned, as Todd said, but she never sinned. She was returned
innocent. And seeing his innocent bride
justified, now listen to me, justified by God, his jealousy was extinguished. And He took her back into His
arms. And not only that, but it said
she conceived and had seed. Thank you.